Newspapers for Illinois Genealogical Research

Newspapers contain a wealth of information of interest to
genealogists and historians. Obituaries and marriage and birth announcements
are commonly found in newspapers. In many locations, the executor of an
estate is or was required to advertise that the estate was being settled
- often the newspapers have these advertisements. Sometimes you find
information about who is moving into or leaving a community.

Newspapers also give a window into the life of the time and location.
In small town newspapers, you often find references that Aunt Sally went to
shopping in the big city, or that Cousin Joe broken his arm falling out of
the apple tree.

For an example of what you may find, take a look at some extracts from the
1880s from a
small town newspaper called the Leon Indicator, Leon, Butler County, Kansas. These
are extracts about the Beadles family who moved to Kansas from Fulton County,
IL, as well as other Illinois names and places which I recognized.

Newspapers can be tedious to use, but they are valuable resource you won't
want to miss.

Newspapers in Illinois

Newspapers of the Past

Illinois State Historical Library Collections

The Illinois State Historical Library, Springfield, Illinois has a very large collection
of historical newspapers. Their report in 1994 stated they had 4,900 titles. Most
are available on microfilm for interlibrary loan (more than 71,000 reels in 1994). The
collection is being catalogued through OCLC.

Periodically, the Illinois State Library publishes a special report listing
the titles available through the Historical Library, as well as titles known
to have been published. Anyone who has missing titles or issues are asked to
contact the library. See, for example:

Newspapers in the Historical Library, Illinois State Library Special Report Series,
Vol. 1 Issue 1, 1994, Cheryl Pence (guest editor), George H. Ryan, Secretary of State of Illinois and
State Librarian.

This book has 144 pages of titles and issue dates for Illinois newspapers and
a few non-Illinois newspapers. The book is organized alphabetically by city or town
of publication. There is also an alphabetical listing of counties which lists
those towns in each county with further listings in the book.